Facebook India chief appears before Parliamentary panel

As the controversy over Facebook's political bias continues to rage, the company's India head Ajit Mohan has appeared before a parliamentary panel which is discussing alleged misuse of social media platforms. Headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, the panel had called representatives of Facebook to hear their views on issues ranging from security, privacy and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms.

New Delhi: Amid a political slugfest over the Facebook issue, the company's India head Ajit Mohan on Wednesday appeared before a parliamentary panel, which is discussing alleged misuse of social media platforms.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology, headed by senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor, had called representatives of Facebook to hear their views "on the subject of safeguarding citizens' rights and prevention of misuse of social/online news media platforms including special emphasis on women security in the digital space," according to agenda of the meeting.

Mohan, Managing Director of Facebook India, appeared before the panel this afternoon, officials said.

He was inside the room for more than two hours and while details of his deposition and other deliberations could not be ascertained immediately, Tharoor tweeted after the meeting that the panel decided to resume the discussion, including with representatives of Facebook.

• In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the ParliamentaryStandingCommittee on InformationTechnology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: we met for some three&a half hours & unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl w/ reps of @Facebook.

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 2, 2020 " class="align-text-top noRightClick twitterSection" data="

  In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the ParliamentaryStandingCommittee on InformationTechnology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: we met for some three&a half hours & unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl w/ reps of @Facebook.

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 2, 2020

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  In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the ParliamentaryStandingCommittee on InformationTechnology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: we met for some three&a half hours & unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl w/ reps of @Facebook.

  — Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) September 2, 2020

"In response to overwhelming media interest in the meeting of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology that just adjourned, this is all I can say: We met for some three and a half hours and unanimously agreed to resume the discussion later, incl with reps of Facebook," he tweeted.

While the Congress MP from Kerala did not disclose any further details, sources said one suggestion was made to schedule the next meeting for resuming the deposition of Facebook on September 10, but a consensus could not be reached with some members objecting to it on the ground that the committee is to be reconstituted.

The panel had also called representatives of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology on the same issue, while a few others including some digital media activists also deposed before the panel.

An official said 18 members of the panel including the chairman were present.

Tharoor's announcement that the panel would like to hear from Facebook about a report published in the Wall Street Journal claiming that the social media platform ignored applying its hate-speech rules to politicians of the BJP in India, had evoked a strong reaction from BJP members of the panel.

BJP MP Nishikant Dubey had alleged that the Congress leader has been using the panel's platform to further his and his party's political agenda and even demanded his removal as chairman.

A fresh round of political slugfest started on the matter on Monday with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claiming that the international media has "exposed" Facebook and WhatsApp's "brazen assault" on India's democracy and social harmony.

"No one, let alone a foreign company, can be allowed to interfere in our nation's affairs. They must be investigated immediately and when found guilty, punished," Gandhi tweeted.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad also wrote to Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday, accusing the social media platform's employees of supporting people from a political predisposition that lost successive elections, and "abusing" Prime Minister and senior cabinet ministers.

In a three-page letter to Facebook Chief Executive Zuckerberg, Prasad alleged "bias and inaction" by individuals in the Facebook India team on complaints by people supportive of right-of-centre ideology.

PTI